Line #36 Film/EvesBayou


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0787.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine The secrets that hold us together can also tear us apart.]]'']]
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4	->''"Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old."''
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6	''Eve's Bayou'' is a 1997 SouthernGothic [[AfricanAmericanMedia Black-led]] drama starring Creator/JurneeSmollett, Creator/SamuelLJackson, and Creator/LynnWhitfield. The movie was directed and written by Creator/KasiLemmons, and produced by Samuel L. Jackson.
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8	In 1962, ten year old Eve Batiste (Smollett), named for her enslaved ancestor and the founder of their hometown, is the middle child in one of Louisiana's most sophisticated and prosperous Black Creole families. Her father Louis (Jackson), is a doctor and a SerialAdulterer, and her mother Roz (Whitfield) minds the family and [[StepfordSmiler looks the other way]]. Eve is the middle of three and feels overlooked, as her sister Cisely (Creator/MeaganGood) is 14 and a DaddysGirl and her brother Poe is 9 and the baby of the family, doted on by his mother. Eve instead often confides in her aunt Mozelle (Debbie Morgan), a sultry fortuneteller who has lost two husbands and fears marrying her current beaux will mean losing a third; the two are close due to a shared sense of the supernatural.
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10	One night during a party, Eve catches her father having sex with another woman, Matty Moreaux, who is married, and is upset by the revelation even when he tries to dismiss her. As she sees more and more about her father, she becomes furious at his infidelity. While Mozelle struggles with her own CartwrightCurse dilemma, the family is in for a summer that changes their lives forever -- in part because of Eve.
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12	The film
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14	----
15	!!Tropes Present:
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17	* TheSixties: The film takes place in 1962.
18	* AmbiguousSituation: The central plot of the movie. [[spoiler:Did Cisely kiss Louis, or did he abuse her?]] Conflicting accounts are given by those involved and the movie never gives a definitive answer either way. In the director's cut, there is an additional character who sees what happens, but he's mute, so no one else will ever know.
19	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In a rage, Eve goes to Elzora and commissions a curse to be put on her father, saying she's "for certain" that she wants him to die for [[spoiler:abusing her older sister]]. [[spoiler: He does, when he's shot to death in front of her by Matty Moreaux's furious husband Lenny]]. Also coupled with DidntThinkThisThrough, as she actually meant to obtain a voodoo doll to enact the curse.
20	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Cisely. She sneaks out of the house, goes to the hairdresser and gets a mature woman's haircut despite being told to not leave the house, and in one scene she mouths off to Grandmere and rolls her eyes at Roz.
21	* BookEnds: ''"The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old, my brother Poe was 9 and my sister Cisely just turned 14"''.
22	%% * CartwrightCurse: Mozelle kind of has this problem.
23	* ComingOfAge: The movie only takes place over a single summer, but the main character and narrator Eve is a different girl altogether by the end of it after learning about her father's infidelities [[spoiler:and later losing him to murder]]; she's telling the story as an adult looking back on her childhood summer that changed her life.
24	* ADeadlyAffair:
25	** Eve's father Louis, a doctor, is constantly cheating on his wife with the various female patients he makes house calls on. Matty Moreaux's husband Lenny finds out and orders Louis not to say another word to his wife. [[spoiler:Louis mockingly says "good night" to her and for it is shot dead in front of his daughter Eve.]]
26	** Mozelle's second husband died when her lover killed him.
27	* DaddysGirl: Cisely is very close to her father Louis. [[spoiler:Which results in a very messed up blurred line when she accuses him of abusing her and he says she came on to him.]]
28	* ExactWords:
29	** Older Eve (through narration) begins the film by stating the summer she's about to recount is the summer she killed her father. This implies that she killed him herself, but it's shown that [[spoiler:her leaking of information about [[SerialAdulterer his many affairs]] -- and some voodoo spells -- led to Lenny Moreaux killing him in anger]].
30	** An infuriated Lenny Moreaux (who has learned his wife is sleeping around, including with Louis) tells Louis not to say another word to his wife Matty or he'll kill him. [[spoiler:Louis mockingly says "good night" to her. Lenny shoots Louis dead]].
31	* FaintingSeer: Mozelle passes out after having a vision and interpreting it as one of the kids getting hit by a car. [[spoiler:Turns out Eve was falling because Louis pushed her out of the way of a gun before he was shot to death, and a train just so happened to be passing at that time. It didn't even hit her, it was just nearby]].
32	* FlatEarthAtheist: Louis and Cisely remain skeptical of Mozelle's precognition, despite her proven track record.
33	* GossipyHens: A few women at the Batistes' party in the beginning are this. They are even the rare variety that provides [[MrExposition exposition]], revealing to the audience that Matty Moreaux sleeps around and that Louis is the best colored doctor in Louisiana.
34	* HeroicBSOD: Mozelle, after Elzora spitefully tells her that her next husband will die like the other two.
35	* HollywoodVoodoo: Generally averted. Hoodoo is accurately portrayed but is referred to as Voodoo (albeit by a little girl who probably doesn't understand the differences).
36	* HotWitch: Mozelle. She's considered quite attractive and was just as promiscuous as her brother, Louis.
37	* IWishedYouWereDead: [[spoiler:Eve goes to a voodoo priestess to find a way to kill her father in anger after believing he molested her older sister. Soon after, he is shot by Matty Moreaux's angry husband Lenny in front of her.]]
38	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: While Mozelle, Eve, and Elzora have genuine precognitive ability, whether or not their magic works beyond that is not clearly explained.
39	* MiddleChildSyndrome: How Eve feels compared to Cisely and Poe, feeling like TheUnfavorite. This is probably why she developed such a close bond with her aunt Mozelle, as her parents baby Poe and award more freedom to Cisely.
40	* MurderTheHypotenuse:
41	** [[spoiler:How Mozelle's secret lover dealt with her second husband, by killing him.]]
42	** [[spoiler:Louis dies when Matty Moreaux's husband Lenny finds out about their affair and warns him not to even so much as speak to her. Louis [[TemptingFate tauntingly says "goodnight"]] to Matty, and [[ADeadlyAffair Lenny shoots him dead]] in front of Eve.]]
43	* NeverTrustATrailer: One of the promo spots for the movie includes a woman telling Eve, "If you tell anyone, I swear I'll do you harm." It sounded like one of Louis' extramarital conquests seriously threatening Eve if she told anyone about it; in reality it was her aunt, most likely speaking in hyperbole.
44	* NoodleIncident: It's not said exactly why or what lead to Elzora and Mozelle having bad blood.
45	* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted. Cisely starts her menstrual period directly after [[spoiler:the inappropriate blurred kiss with her father, Louis]]. A big deal is made of it, including showing her bloody underwear.
46	%% * NostalgicNarrator: Eve.
47	* ParentalIncest: Whether or not a mild form of this occurred between Louis and his oldest daughter Cisely is one of the central focuses of the film. [[spoiler: The theatrical release makes it more explicit that Cisely initiated the kiss with her father and Louis forcibly stopped her, while the director's cut leaves it ambiguous who initiated the kiss.]]
48	%% * PetTheDog: Mozelle's husband Harry's relationship with Eve.
49	* PizzaBoySpecialDelivery: Louis sleeps with [[SerialAdulterer quite a few of his female patients]] while going around on house calls, to the point that women feign illness just to be alone with him.
50	-->'''Louis''': Your lungs are as clear as a bell, Stevie. You're going to live.
51	-->'''Stevie''': Can you give me something for...''the pain?''
52	-->'''Louis''': Eve, go play outside. ''(Closes door)'' What pain is that, Stevie?
53	-->''Cue SexyDiscretionShot.''
54	* TheRashomon: To some extent, with what happened between Cisely and Louis. Cisely claims [[spoiler:her father molested her]], while Louis' letter states [[spoiler:that Cisely came onto him and he reacted violently]]. Eve does see what happened with her second sight but it's not clearly revealed, leaving the truth up in the air.
55	* RealityIsUnrealistic: Lynn Whitfield is the only actor in the cast who's actually from Louisiana (born and raised in Baton Rouge), but she's also the only one who neither has a strong (fake) accent nor speaks French at any point in the movie (though it's implied that Roz understands it just fine).
56	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Averted. Mozelle uses her powers to help people find missing loved ones.
57	* SceneryPorn: The eponymous bayou is almost a character itself, along with the large Batiste manor home.
58	* SerialAdulterer: Eve's father Louis and one of his known affair partners, Matty Moreaux, are both sleeping around -- both with many people in their town as well as with each other. Matty cheats on her husband while he's out of town teaching and Louis, a doctor, sleeps with many of his female patients [[PizzaBoySpecialDelivery he makes house calls on]]. When Matty's husband Lenny finds out Louis is sleeping with Matty, he confronts Louis while drunk and furiously orders Louis never to even so much as speak to his wife again or he'll kill him. [[spoiler:Louis [[TemptingFate tauntingly says "goodnight"]] to Matty, and [[ADeadlyAffair Lenny shoots him dead]] in front of Eve.]]
59	* ShowDontTell: This rule is violated when Eve finds an undelivered letter written by Louis to Mozelle, his sister. According to the letter, the two had a heated argument where [[spoiler: Mozelle accused Louis of raping Cicely, and Louis wrote her the letter afterwards when he was calm enough to explain his side of the story]]. It would have been nice to ''see'' the argument, since the two siblings had next to no direct interaction in the movie.
60	* SouthernGothic: The movie is set in Louisiana in the 1960s and focuses on a Black Creole family that's full of secrets, conflict, infidelity, and unclear magic.
61	* StepfordSmiler: Roz tries her best to keep everything looking happy and normal in her family despite knowing full well her husband is a SerialAdulterer. Much of the movie deals with her facade breaking.
62	* TemptingFate: Matty Moreaux's cuckolded husband Lenny, who is drunk and very angry at Louis after finding out he's been sleeping with his wife, tells him not to speak to his wife again under threat of death. Louis mockingly tells her "good night." [[spoiler:He's shot dead in front of Eve for it.]]
63	* TooDumbToLive: Louis. Despite Lenny Moreaux's clear warning Louis that he'll kill him if he talks to Matty again for any reason, he tauntingly decides to talk to her anyway by saying "good night." Lenny wasn't bluffing. [[spoiler:He shoots him dead in front of Eve.]]
64	* WallBangHer: How Louis and Matty Moreaux get it on in the carriage house, thinking no one's around. Eve catches them in the act.
65	* WickedWitch: Elzora is a voodoo-flavored one. She and Mozelle have some unexplained bad blood, and she likes scaring children for laughs.
66	* WidowWitch: Mozelle, who has gone through two husbands at the start of the movie and a third in the middle.
67	* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler:The movie's most pivotal scene hinges on the fact that neither Louis nor Cisely remember exactly what happened the night their unhealthily-close relationship went too far.]]

Context Film / EvesBayou